China Holds Hearing on Rail Fares

China held its first-ever nationally broadcast public hearing to discuss state railway ticket prices Saturday as part of a limited experiment in government transparency.

Some 33 consumer advocates and government academics read presentations and pitched questions at railway officials during the daylong hearing in Beijing.

Four hours of proceedings were beamed live across the country on Chinese Central Television's main channel.

State media cast the event as an unprecedented opportunity for common citizens to sound off on how prices are set. Railway ticket prices are a hot topic in China, where trains are the basic mode of transport for the country's 1.26 billion people.

China's railways routinely raise ticket prices as much as 30 percent during the spring lunar new year festival, which this year begins Feb. 11. The practice has generated frequent complaints of price gouging aired in state newspapers.

"Trains are the best choice of transportation for many Chinese from lower-income brackets, especially workers and students," said Wu Tangmao, a consumer advocate. "Higher prices can cause major economic losses."

Railway officials said higher ticket prices were necessary because China's railways are deep in debt and bear the added holiday burden of overtime pay and extra trains. The Railway Ministry predicts 130 million Chinese will take the train during the Jan. 28-March 8 peak travel season.

A majority of participants finally agreed to allow limited price rises, the official Xinhua News Agency said. An agreement will be mailed to participants for their approval.

The Communist Party holds tightly to its political monopoly and strongly discourages freewheeling political discussion. Yet consumer activism has been given an increasingly high profile as a means of promoting a stronger legal system and giving citizens an outlet to vent frustrations.